Washington vacationer injured while jet skiing on Lake Winnisquam

MEREDITH — A vacationer from Washington state suffered an apparent broken leg Wednesday after the wake board he was riding on Lake Winnisquam struck him, rescuers said.

Rescue crews were called at 3:16 p.m. to 27 Lower Waldron Road after authorities received several reports of a water skier down in the water, said Fire Chief Ken Jones.

.A firefighter took the department’s jet ski to the scene while a rescue crew borrowed a local resident’s pontoon boat to reach the scene, about 390 yards from the shoreline, he said.

The victim, Shawn Jeffries, 40, of Aberdeen, Wash., had been helped on to another pontoon boat by local boaters. Rescue crews loaded him aboard their boat and carried him to shore, where he was taken to Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia...He was later taken by ambulance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon, Jones said.

Jeffries was in stable condition, having likely suffered a broken femur and some other minor injuries.

“The wake board struck him while he was riding it; it caught him in the body somehow,” he said...dseufert@newstote.com ..